Here’s what’s in the $1.75 trillion economic plan Biden will try to sell to his party

By CNN Newsource

Published October 28, 2021 6:16 AM

By Kate Sullivan, CNN

President Joe Biden on Thursday will make the case for a significantly scaled-back version of his massive economic plan to expand the social safety net hours before departing for his second major foreign trip as president.

The $1.75 trillion proposal focuses on care for families, addressing the climate crisis, expanding access to health care, lowering costs for the middle class and tax reforms.

The President on Thursday morning headed to Capitol Hill to pitch his framework to the House Democratic Caucus and will later deliver remarks from the White House to make his case to the American people.

His agenda still hangs in the balance and faces an uncertain fate in Congress. Progressive House Democrats remain skeptical of the plan and want to see the full legislative text and are threatening to hold their votes for the bipartisan infrastructure package until that text is released.

The new plan makes major concessions and does not have several key planks that Biden had initially proposed, including paid family and medical leave, prescription drug pricing provisions, free community college and vision or dental Medicaid coverage.

Here’s what is included in the plan:

Children and caregiving

Free and universal preschool for all 3- and 4-year-olds, which amounts to the biggest expansion of public education in 100 years, according to the White House. It would include funding for six years.

Expanded access to high-quality and affordable child care to about 20 million children per year, with funding for six years.

Permanently improve Medicaid coverage for home care services for seniors and people with disabilities, which would make the most transformative investment in access to home care in 40 years, according to the White House.
Expanding the enhanced child tax credit that was included in the American Rescue Plan and provide more than 35 million households up to $3,600 — or $300 per month — in tax cuts per child.

Combating the climate crisis

The largest portion of the framework focuses on climate and would include the largest legislative investment in combating climate change in US history, according to the White House. White House officials say the framework Biden is set to lay out will put the US track to Biden’s Paris Agreement goal: a 50-52% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions below 2005 levels by the end of the decade.
$320 billion for clean energy tax credits. This includes 10-year expanded tax credits for utility-scale and residential clean energy, transmission and storage, clean passenger and commercial vehicles and clean energy manufacturing.
$105 billion to address extreme weather, pollution in communities and the creation of a Civilian Climate Corps to conserve public lands and bolster community resilience.
$110 in investments and incentives for clean energy technology, manufacturing and supply chains.
$20 billion to provide incentives for the government to purchase next generation technologies, including clean construction materials.

Health care

Lower premiums for 9 million Americans who buy insurance through the Affordable Care Act.
Close the Medicaid coverage gap and deliver health care coverage through Affordable Care Act premium tax credits to certain uninsured Americans.
Expand Medicare coverage to include hearing services.

Lowering costs for middle class

$150 billion to expand access to affordable housing. The plan would allow the construction, rehabilitation, and improvement of more than 1 million affordable homes.
Extend the expanded Earned Income Tax Credit for about 17 million low-wage workers.
Increase the maximum Pell Grant by $550 for more than 5 million students enrolled in public and private, non-profit colleges and expand access to DREAMers.
Expand free school meals to 8.7 million children during the school year, as well as provide a $65 per child per month benefit to the families of 29 million children to purchase food during the summer.

Tax reforms

The framework will impose a 15% minimum tax on profits of corporations that report more than $1 billion in profits to shareholders. It also includes a 1% surcharge on corporate stock buybacks.
The plan would adopt a 15% country-by-country minimum tax on foreign profits of US corporations.
Would impose a new surtax on the income of multi-millionaires and billionaire — a 5% rate above income of $10 million and an additional 3% surtax on income above $25 million. The White House stresses nobody earning $400,000 or less would have their taxes raised.
It would hire IRS enforcement agents who are trained to pursue wealthy evaders, modernizing outdated IRS technology, and investing in taxpayer service.

After months of negotiations and concessions that resulted in Biden’s initial proposal of $3.5 trillion being cut in half, the White House expressed confidence on Thursday morning that this new framework would have enough support to pass both the House and the Senate.

“This will be the mean the most transformative investment in children and caregiving in generations, the largest effort to combat climate change in history, a historic tax cut for tens of millions of middle-class families and the biggest expansion of affordable health care in a decade,” a senior administration official said Thursday.

The official continued: “And it is entirely paid for by rewarding work, not wealth, and ensuring that the super wealthy and corporations pay their fair share and can’t cheat every honest American on their tax bills.”

This story has been updated with additional information about the framework.

CNN’s Betsy Klein and Kevin Liptak contributed to this report.

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